Method of treating wheels of locomotive

ABSTRACT

A method of treatment for at least one wheel of a locomotive. The wheel has an outer periphery that defines a tread portion of the wheel. The method includes applying a friction enhancing material to the tread portion by depositing the friction enhancing material on the tread portion of the wheel, and then causing fusion of the friction enhancing material with the tread portion of the wheel through at least one of a welding, electro-plating or electro-fusion process.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to a method of treating wheels of a locomotive. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a method of applying friction enhancing material to the wheels of the locomotive.

BACKGROUND

Locomotives are commonly known in the heavy vehicle industry to transport passengers and/or material from one place to another. To accomplish such operations, locomotives are generally made to traverse over a pair of rails. Locomotives may include wheels that may mate and ply over such pair of rails, to guide a locomotive movement. When the locomotives traverse over inclined regions (or an inclined pair of rails), the wheels of the locomotive may sustain slippage. Wheel slippage may cause wear and degradation to the wheels and may result in a distorted wheel profile. This may hamper a locomotive operation.

Conventionally, wheel slippage over the rails is mitigated by spraying a stream of sand at an interface between the wheels and the rails. This increases friction between the rails and the wheels of the locomotive, and therefore wheel slippage is reduced. It may be noted that the sand sprayed at the interface between the rails and the wheels is not permanently secured to the wheel and may be removed as the locomotive traverses forward. This may lead to wheel slippage and may result in damage to the wheels of the locomotive. Moreover, disassembling and transporting the wheel to a work site for an associated treatment process may be unfeasible, as well.

German Patent 2,180,362 discloses a rail to guide a locomotive. The rail has a tread portion referred to as driving surface that is reinforced with a layer of tungsten carbide grains (friction enhancing material). Although, this reference discloses a rail treated with a layer of friction enhancing material (such as tungsten carbide grains), no solution is provided to treat the wheels of the locomotive with the friction enhancing materials without disassembly of the wheels from the locomotive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Various aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a method of treating at least one wheel of a locomotive. The wheel has an outer periphery that defines a tread portion of the wheel. The method includes applying a friction enhancing material to the tread portion of the wheel. Application of the friction enhancing material includes depositing the friction enhancing material onto the tread portion of the wheel, and then causing fusion of the friction enhancing material with the tread portion of the wheel. The friction enhancing material is fused to the tread portion of the wheel through at least one of a welding, an electro-plating, or an electro-fusion process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exemplary side view of a train system that illustrates a locomotive of the train system, in accordance with the concepts of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a side view of a wheel of the locomotive of FIG. 1 that describes treatment of the wheel, in accordance with concepts of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the wheel of the locomotive of FIG. 2 taken along a section A-A that illustrates a layer of friction enhancing material applied to the wheel of the locomotive.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a train system 10 to carry people and/or load materials from one place to another. The train system 10 may embody a passenger train, a freight train, and/or similar train systems. The train system 10 commonly includes a locomotive 12, supported and guided over a pair of rails 14. The locomotive 12 is a powerhouse of the train system 10 that includes an engine and associated components to generate motive power required to haul the train system 10. In addition, the train system 10 may also include rail cars (not shown) connected to the locomotive 12. During normal operation of the train system 10, the rail cars (not shown) carry load material and are propelled by the locomotive 12 over the pair of rails 14, to traverse from one place to the other. Moreover, as is customarily known, the locomotive 12 is operatively supported and guided over the pair of rails 14, by a set of wheels 16.

Each set of wheels 16 are formed by connecting a wheel on both ends of a shaft 26 (as shown in FIG. 2). The shaft 26 assists in maintaining the two wheels of any set of wheels 16, to be separated by a constant distance and rotate them in unison. Notably, the bottom portion of the set of wheels 16 are in continuous contact with the rails 14. Prolonged operation of the locomotive 12 may cause wheel slippage and the wheels 16 are likely to undergo wear and degradation. Therefore, the wheels 16 are required to be treated by one or more suitable treatment processes. In the present disclosure, the wheels 16 are treated by applying a friction enhancing material 18 onto the wheels 16, as is best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Although concepts of the present disclosure are applicable to one or more of the wheels 16, for ease in reference and understanding, the wheels 16 may be referred to as a wheel 16, interchangeably, hereinafter.

As shown in FIG. 2, the wheel 16 of the locomotive 12 undergoes a treatment according to the present disclosure. An equipment, referred to as an on-board equipment 20 that is configured to apply the friction enhancing material 18 onto the wheel 16, is depicted. It may be envisioned that the friction enhancing material 18 may embody materials, such as but not limited to, Titanium carbides (TiC), tungsten carbide (WC), Boron Nitride (BN), and/or similar materials. Although the present disclosure is directed to application of friction enhancing material 18 onto the wheel 16 of the locomotive 12, the concepts of the present disclosure may also be applied to the wheels 16 of the rail cars (not shown). The wheel 16 of the locomotive 12 includes a central portion 22 and an outer periphery 24.

The central portion 22 of the wheel 16 facilitates connection of the wheel 16 to the shaft 26 that in turn facilitates connection to one or more prime movers of the locomotive 12. The outer periphery 24 of the wheel 16 defines a tread portion 28 and a flange portion 30. The tread portion 28 of the wheel 16 is substantially cylindrical and continuously contacts the rails 14 during an affiliated locomotive movement. The tread portion 28 is applied with the friction enhancing material 18. The flange portion 30 protrudes from one end of the tread portion 28 and prevents the wheel 16 from misalignment relative to the rails 14.

The on-board equipment 20 is adapted to apply the friction enhancing material 18 on the tread portion 28 of the wheel 16. The on-board equipment 20 may be one of a welding equipment, an electro-fusion equipment, or an electro plating equipment adapted to apply the friction enhancing material 18 onto the tread portion 28. It may be noted that such an application includes deposition of the friction enhancing material 18 onto the tread portion 28 and then causing it to fuse with the tread portion 28 by any one of known metal bonding process in the art, such as a welding process, an electro-fusion process, or an electro-plating process. The on-board equipment 20 includes a torch assembly 32 and a power module 34.

The torch assembly 32 is adapted to support the friction enhancing material 18 that is required to be coated onto the tread portion 28. In an embodiment, the torch assembly 32 includes a holder equipment 36 that supports the friction enhancing material 18. Moreover, the torch assembly 32 is in electrical connection with the power module 34. The power module 34 is adapted to supply electric current to the torch assembly 32 in form of pulses to melt the friction enhancing material 18 held by the torch assembly 32. In application, the friction enhancing material 18 melted by the power module 34 is deposited onto the tread portion 28 and is fused by forming a covalent bond with the tread portion 28. Therefore, the tread portion 28 of the wheel 16 is coated with the friction enhancing material 18 along the entire circumference of the wheel 16.

The on-board equipment 20 is positioned in-situ to the locomotive 12. More specifically, the power module 34 is fixedly positioned onto the locomotive 12 while the torch assembly 32 is positioned to operably face the tread portion 28 via a detachable mount 38. The mounting of the torch assembly 32 relative to the wheel 16 will now be explained. In an embodiment of the disclosure, the mount 38 include a first end 40 and a second end 42, as shown in FIG. 2. The first end 40 of the mount 38 is rotatably attached to the central portion 22 of the wheel 16. The second end 42 of the mount 38 is fixed to the locomotive 12 and supports the torch assembly 32, while the torch assembly 32 operably faces the tread portion 28 of the wheel 16. This arrangement of the on-board equipment 20 relative to the wheel 16 of the locomotive 12 facilitates application of the friction enhancing material 18 onto the tread portion 28. Multiple other mounting means may be contemplated. Accordingly, the mounting described in the present disclosure need not be seen as limiting in any way.

Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown a cross-sectional view of the wheel 16 of the locomotive 12 taken along a section A-A (see FIG. 2) of the wheel 16 that illustrates the friction enhancing material 18 applied to the wheel 16. As the on-board equipment 20 is actuated, the torch assembly 32 deposits the friction enhancing material 18 onto the tread portion 28 of the wheel 16. The friction enhancing material 18 then fuses with the tread portion 28 and the tread portion 28 is obtained with a coated layer 44 of the friction enhancing material 18.

In one aspect of the disclosure, the friction enhancing material 18 may be selectively deposited on the tread portion 28 at predefined or predetermined locations along the circumference of the wheel 16. If the wheel 16 is not treated at the predefined or predetermined locations otherwise, may cause an uneven rotation of the wheel 16 and misalignment of wheel rotation with respect to the shaft 26 about a longitudinal axis X-X.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

Prolonged operation of the locomotive 12 over the pair of rails 14 may subject the wheels 16 of the locomotive 12 to wear and degradation. Wheel degradation may be mitigated by increasing friction between the wheels 16 and the pair of rails 14. The friction between the wheels 16 and the pair of rails 14 may be accomplished by application of the friction enhancing material 18 to the wheels 16 of the locomotive 12.

For applying the friction enhancing material 18 to the wheels 16, an operator may manually actuate the on-board equipment 20. As the on-board equipment 20 is actuated, the power module 34 may supply electric current in form of pulses to the torch assembly 32. This facilitates melting of the friction enhancing material 18 held by the torch assembly 32. As the torch assembly 32 is positioned radially towards the tread portion 28 of the wheel 16, the resultant friction enhancing material 18 in molten form is deposited onto the tread portion 28 of the wheel 16. Once deposited, the friction enhancing material 18 is caused to fuse with the tread portion 28 by at least one of the welding, electro-plating, and/or electro-fusion process. Notably, in these processes the friction enhancing material 18 forms covalent bond with the tread portion 28 of the wheel 16. Such an application by fusion and forming the covalent bond results in a relatively strong adhesion of the friction enhancing material 18 to the tread portion 28. Therefore, the tread portion 28 of the wheel 16 is coated with the coated layer 44 of the friction enhancing material 18. In an embodiment, the wheel 16 may be rotated relative to the torch assembly 32 to coat the tread portion 28 along the entire circumference of the wheel 16. Notably, coating the friction enhancing material 18 to the tread portion 28 of the wheel 16 using either of the welding, electro-plating, and/or electro-fusion process, facilitates a relatively strong and permanent coated layer 44 of the friction enhancing material 18. This prevents wheel slippage and in turn wheel degradation, during operation of the locomotive 12. Therefore, the wheels 16 of the locomotive 12 may function for a prolonged period without being trued and/or replaced. This may reduce the service and/or repair cost of the locomotive 12. Additionally, coating the tread portion 28 of the wheel 16 with the friction enhancing material 18 with use of either of the welding, electro-plating, and/or electro-fusion process may improve hauling of the locomotive 12. Therefore, a relatively heavier train system may be more efficiently propelled by the locomotive 12. Moreover, applying the coated layer 44 of the friction enhancing material 18 may reduce complexity of a control system that sprays sand to an intersection of the wheels 16 and the pair of rails 14.

Upon the treatment of the wheel 16 with the process explained in this disclosure, the contour of tread portion 28 would substantially match the contour of the tread portion 28 of a new wheel 16. Furthermore, because the on-board equipment 20 is mounted in-situ with the locomotive 12, the wheel 16 of the locomotive 12 may be prevented from being disassembled from the locomotive 12, as well. This generally reduces service time and maintenance costs.

It should be understood that the above description is intended for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other aspects of the disclosure may be obtained from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claim. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of treatment for at least one wheel of a locomotive, the at least one wheel having an outer periphery defining a tread portion of the at least one wheel, the method comprising: applying a friction enhancing material to the tread portion of the at least one wheel, wherein applying the friction enhancing material includes: depositing the friction enhancing material on the tread portion of the at least one wheel; and causing fusion of the friction enhancing material with the tread portion of the at least one wheel through at least one of a welding, electro-plating, or electro-fusion process.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the locomotive being provided with on-board equipment to deposit the friction enhancing material to the at least one wheel. 